Josh Beane

Idea Farmer
Founder and CEO

Josh Beane is founder and CEO of Idea Farmer, an independent full service ad agency headquartered in Los Angeles. In this role, Josh oversees business strategy and leadership for the award winning firm, helping clients like KitchenAid, Muscle Milk, Subaru and Shutterfly connect with audiences through engaging and authentic storytelling.

Josh launched Idea Farmer as a content studio in 2011, eventually expanding it into a full service agency to meet client demand for additional capabilities. In addition to the client services portion of the business, Josh is also focused on developing and launching original intellectual property that compliments Idea Farmer’s brand partners and opens the door for additional growth opportunities.

Prior to Idea Farmer, Josh was Executive Creative Director at interactive agency WhittmanHart where he led content strategy for brands such as Harley-Davidson, Scion, AT&T and Mountain Dew. In this role, he oversaw content ideation, strategy, development and execution for the agency’s four U.S. offices.

Josh came to advertising from the entertainment world where he got his start producing interstitial television programming for the USA Network. He helped pioneer YouTube as a legitimate music platform, producing a breakthrough series of music videos for Ashley Tisdale’s debut album, which garnered millions of views and played a key role in launching the artist’s recording career. Earlier, Josh served as the Creative Executive and Producer for indie film production company Timbergrove Entertainment.

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Some industry watchers think influencer marketing needs a dramatic rethink, away from social media stars that deliver massive reach towards smaller micro-influencers, claiming the Web’s biggest stars are now just as inaccessible to regular people as Hollywood celebrities, making them (ironically) less influential. Is there really an inverse relationship between reach and accessibility when it comes to celebrity in America, and is that something you can measure? Are there any new models out there that move beyond social data to hone in on what really drives influence? How does a brand figure out what the right mix of reach and accessibility is when choosing an influencer partner?